Budget time will soon be upon us. COVID pandemic, climate disasters, uncertain political and economic situations such BREXIT, and Afghanistan ,require more detailed and more frequent budgets and new IFRS standards compound the challenges for Office of the CFO..

Budgets are essential to a company’s yearly plan and strategy, yet many financial leaders express dissatisfaction with their current budgeting tools. According to a 2015 research study by Prophix, 79% of finance professionals are displeased with their budgeting tools. At the same time, finance professionals understand the importance of reliable budgeting. Budgets are used to understand a company’s finances, minimize unnecessary expenses, and offer stakeholders important financial information.

Why Finance Teams are Not Happy with Spreadsheets

According to the same 2015 research study, over 70% of finance professionals depend on spreadsheets to create their annual budgets. Organizing input from multiple sources is complicated when using spreadsheets and requires time-consuming manual work to enter sort, and format data. Compiled data may be inconsistently calculated or inaccurate, affecting the yearly budget’s reliability. Performing what-if analyses on spreadsheets is headache-inducing. Simply put, spreadsheets do not offer the desired qualities finance professionals look for in a budgeting tool.

Considerations When Determining a Budgeting Tool

There are a few key considerations to keep in mind when determining a budgeting tool. First, consistency within the budget is needed as data is derived from multiple sources within the organization. Consistency is important for accuracy purposes, and because data must have high auditability.  Another consideration is automated processing capabilities. When simple calculations are automated you can focus your efforts on more complex issues. The ease of performing what-if analysis should also be kept in mind. Finally, the budget must be secure. This poses a challenge when multiple employees are contributing to the budget.

Corporate Performance Management Solution

A corporate performance management (CPM) solution addresses all the considerations listed above by automating processes and solving frustrations associated with spreadsheets. CPM software offers the calculating abilities of a spreadsheet, but with more advanced data consolidation and security capabilities. These capabilities make budget collaboration between departments simpler. Audit protection and ease of what-if analysis also appeals to finance professionals. CPM software is built for multiple users to collaborate in a secure way. Formatting is kept consistent, and the software is user-friendly, prompting users if additional input or approval is required.

As a real-world example, a consulting company that had previously used Excel for budgeting implemented a CPM solution from Prophix. Within two years, their budgeting process went from six months to four months. CPM software is a good fit for companies frustrated with spreadsheets and looking for a more efficient alternative.

With Prophix’s CPM solution, Dynamics users can budget faster and automate processes – all with seamless integration to your current ERP solution. To learn more about a budgeting solution that integrates with most finance and erp systems contact Synergy Software Systems , Prophix PArtners for MEA region

The wave 2 release of Dynamics 365 is due for October 2021 and, according to Microsoft. It will bring new innovations that provide you with significant capabilities to transform your business

. Hundreds of new features will be released across the entire suite of Dynamics 365 applications.

Finance New Features

The Finance App will see plenty of new features related to Core Financials, Finance Insights, and Globalization.

Core Financials

This release for Finance is focused on bringing additional enhancements to core financial capability, including preparing customers for a successful year-end close.

• Prevent automatic one-voucher usage in fixed assets
  • helps ensure that fixed assets don’t require, or enable, multiple transactions in the same voucher in the general ledger.
• Prevent posting depreciation to the same period twice
  • prevent depreciation from being posted to a period that depreciation has already been posted to.
• Create collections activities based on payment predictions
  • automated tool to reduce the amount of time spent researching customer invoices and determining collection activities that will help your business get paid faster.
• Display lease ID on fixed asset record
  • saves data entry time and helps reduce the possibility of errors by syncing information automatically.
• Pass service life from Asset leasing to Fixed assets
  • automates the process of passing service life from asset leasing to an asset book.
• Edit Asset leasing journals
  • makes it easier to capture vendor invoices on lease payment transactions, while also providing flexibility to edit certain fields on an Asset leasing journal before posting.
• Financial Dimension service
  • improves the process of resolving financial dimensions when you import a large number of journals.
• General ledger year-end enhancements
  • gives you more control over the year-end close process, help ensure the accuracy of account balances, and improve overall performance of the year-end close process.
• Allow positive asset depreciation
  • lets your organization account for governmental funds that record the fund as an asset with negative value, then depreciate that asset with positive depreciation.
• Enhancements around ledger settlements
  • reduces the number of manual steps through an automated settlement process.

Finance Insights

This release focuses on accelerating digital transformation with AI and automation.

• Customer payment predictions
  • knowing when all of a customer’s outstanding invoices are likely to be paid, in addition to knowing when specific invoices are likely to be paid, can help businesses optimize the start of collection activities.
• External data for cash flow forecasting
  • enter or import external data into cash flow forecasts.
• Forecast bank balance
  • helps companies monitor and manage their cash balances effectively.
• Intelligent budget proposal
  • intelligent budget proposals make it easy to gather historical data from actuals or budgets to use for budgeting within Dynamics 365 Finance.
• Treasurer workspace
  • helps companies monitor and manage their cash balances effectively.

Globalization

In 2021 release wave 2, globalization focuses on two main areas—further out-of-the-box global expansion, and simplifying compliance and globalization extensibility via no-code/low-code globalization services. Twenty new features are scheduled to be released between October 2021 and March 2022. You can view the full list of features here.

Fall 2021 Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management New Features

One of the biggest impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the disruption in supply chains. The Wave 2 Release will include features that support enhanced supply chain visibility, multiple business platform support, optimized workforce, agile planning and distribution processes, and more.

Inventory and Logistics

The release includes 13 new features to help you gain visibility, flexibility, and efficiency in your supply chain.

• Detailed pricing models for sales price calculations
  • establish detailed pricing models for calculating the right sales price for the items included in each sales order.
• Create and view certifications on the vendor collaboration interface
  • enables vendors to use the vendor collaboration interface to submit or expire certifications that can be approved and then saved with the vendor record.
• Post on-hand adjustments using codes connected to offset accounts
  • adds efficiency, speed, and clear documentation to the inventory adjustment process in warehouses and retail stores.
• Sales quotation referenced data export policy
  • allows organizations to run incremental exports of sales quotations more quickly.
• Scan barcodes in the warehouse using GS1 format standards
  • simplifies the scanning process in warehouses where pallets and containers are labeled with GS1 barcodes.
• Updates to inventory and logistics feature states with version 10.0.21
  • Variety of updates to cost management, inventory management, warehouse management, procurement and sourcing, and sales and marketing. Read more here.
• Soft reservation for the Inventory Visibility Add-in
  • enables order management and point-of-sale systems to communicate directly with Supply Chain Management to find and temporarily reserve requested inventory.
• Global Inventory Accounting Add-in for Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
  • provides the ability to account inventory in multiple representations by applying the appropriate valuation method (standard cost, average, or specific identification) and the selected accounting currency per instance.
• Warehouse Management mobile app step instructions
  • helps workers ramp up faster on new tasks by providing configurable instructions for each step and focusing workers’ attention on the most important fields as they work through a flow.
• Deduction and catch-weight enhancements for rebate management
  • provides organizations with a central place to view and process rebates.
• Work breaks and tracking updates for Landed cost
  • automatically update estimated to actual arrival dates of imported goods based on existing putaway records in the system.
• Park tasks in the Warehouse Management mobile app
  • Allows warehouse workers to stop their current task to perform another more important one, and then return to the original task without losing any information.
• Inventory allocation for the Inventory Visibility Add-in
  • allows you to set aside dedicated inventory to make sure you can fulfill your most profitable channels.

Manufacturing

• Updates to manufacturing feature states with version 10.0.21
  • Variety of features that will be turned on by default, but can be manually disabled. Read more.
• Face recognition sign-in for production floor workers
  • improves worker effectiveness and job satisfaction by making it faster and easier to sign in to the production floor execution interface.
• Enhanced production floor execution interface for process manufacturing
  • makes shop floor workers more effective and reduces registration errors.

Planning

• Updates to planning feature states with version 10.0.21
  • Use finite scheduling to detect potential future delays caused by limited resource capacity.
  • Allocate resources based on capabilities
  • Support process manufacturing scenarios while taking advantage of Planning Optimization.
  • For process manufacturers, the system now supports batch orders, co-products, by-products, and items with limited shelf life.
• Planning Optimization support for capability-based resource allocation
  • optimize resource usage by deferring resource allocation until productions are scheduled.

Product Information Management

• Updates to product information management feature states with version 10.0.21
  • Navigation to BOM version from BOM lines.
  • Hazardous materials product information and shipping documentation.
  • Strict validation on default order quantities.
  • Country of origin management feature